The Taste Of An Enigma
by Kayla Elric
Summary: Mello had learned in Wammy from a playful, sweet-worded girl named Colette that brains were no substitute for life's joys. Yet, upon seeing her again after many years, will he be able to help her pick up the pieces she had worked so hard to put together?


**Hey, guess what, kiddies? KAYLA ELRIC IS BACK IN THE BUILDING!  
I've decided that after struggling with SITG 1 and 2, I'm taking a break to do another romance, about DEATH NOTE! while waiting for my written copy of SITG2 to return to me, so I can get that crap out of the way.  
So, sit back, relax, and enjoy mah new hit!**

"Mello...hand me that last piece?"

The young fourteen-year-old blonde looked up from his absent-minded daze and focused on the plastic piece that had landed at his feet. Scoffing in aggravation, he pushed the piece away with a small nudge of his right foot, feeling that would suffice.

"What, you have legs, don't you?" he rudely inquired.

The other boy, with a mop of slightly tangled ivory hair covering his eyes, reached out as far as his arm would allow without causing a painful strain. Grabbing the puzzle piece between his small fingers, before pressing it into his once incomplete "masterpiece", making a small clacking sound as it hit the base board. He didn't even respond to Mello's attitude. Truthfully, he couldn't care less.

After a moment, though, he spoke.

"Do you have any idea where Colette is?"

Mello winced upon hearing the name. It's razor-sharp yet enticing melody ringing through his brain. His eyes looked back down, and a response of a shaken head was all that was needed.

"Oh...maybe you should go talk to her. Her bubbliness seemed a bit more...melancholy today."

The blonde growled and gritted his teeth. This boy, Near, as many had known him, seemed to have two hobbies he most enjoyed. Number one was puzzles and anything that could challenge him. Number two... was antagonizing Mello through a seemingly harmless conversation. Both however, sent Mello through a mental storm and made him want to scream.

* * *

Colette Beranne, a twelve-year-old French-born orphan, moved to Wammy House exactly six months prior to the current day. Her mother was a French-Creole woman from New Orleans, Louisiana, who raised her daughter herself until Colette reached age ten, when some rather dashing French doctor proposed to her and swept the two away to their native France, where most of Colette's elderly family was located anyway. The young girl was only over eleven when both parents and their brand-new Volkswagen Beetle were knocked off a countryside cliff by a drunken trucker.

The emotionally distraught Colette then was sent to Wammy House, being one of the most intellectually-superior in her classes, no matter where she traveled. She had been noted as a student who always questioned the visions of the human mind and how people could accept something so casually because someone else had taught them that way. She lived in Wammy for two months before she befriended Mello. No matter how smart she truly was she always had an aura of mischief and playfulness about her, and that somehow intrigued Meelo. To the point where they could be seen having several hour-long conversations from morning at breakfast to bedtime for the orphans.

She now sat on one of the windowsills, sketchbook in hand, pen in the other, gazing out the window only to create a counterfeit replica of what she saw upon looking through the glass to the outside world.

Mello had taken up on Near's proposal and ventured out into the other room to find his friend. His teal eyes gazed from the doorway, before stepping through the threshhold into the room, making his way across the floor to where she sat.

"Hey, Colette..." he greeted her quietly.

Her emerald eyes shot up from once a curtain of auburn hair, and a smile curled her lips. "Hi, Mel-mel," she answered, a hint of Creole in her tone.

Mello growled and sat beside her. "I've told you at least a hundred times: don't call me 'Mel-mel'. You make me feel slightly girly..."

She giggled, reaching over to ruffle her friend's golden hair. "Aww, you know I love you, _mon ami_."

"And don't talk in languages I don't fully understand!" He snapped playfully, swatting her hand away.

She pouted, her pink lips puffing out just slightly. "Aww, but that makes it so hard. I don't think you even understand the English language too much..."

"Explain to me why we're friends again."

She giggled more and took one of his hands. "Because without me, you would be bored and stuck playing puzzles or stack-the-objects-into-a-tower with Near. And I know you would probably end your misery yourself." She smiled and reached into her pocket, pulling out some square-like object and pulling off the wrapping, before cracking it in half and handing one to Mello. "Care to share the last of my gourmet chocolate with me, Mello?"

His eyes widened slightly as the confection was placed in his grasp. He loved the treats that were sent to Colette, especially the chocolate. For some reason its rich velvety taste made him forget everything. "Thank you," he said with a small smile, biting the rugged corned off and letting it melt on his tongue.

"I love my grandmammi, so much," Colette said, her voice wandering. "She sends me the best treats...I kinda wish I could've lived with her."

"But why?" Another bite.

"Well, she owns a beautiful estate in Bordeaux, right on the Garonne River. She used to grow all these rainbow flowers along her house when the weather was nice and warm. Not to mention her cooking was so tasty, and I always helped. New Orleans was amazing but I still enjoyed France a little better because of her. But then she got ill, and I wouldn't want her to have to watch after me..." She bit into her chocolate half with little enthusiasm, tasting like ash in her mouth.

Mello sighed and placed his hand on Colette's thin shoulder. "But soon we'll be out of here...and you'll get back to France, and go to visit your birth city in America, even if I have to take you myself."

Colette produced a weak hopeless laugh and shook her head. "No, no...I don't want to be-"

"Did it ever occur to you that I may want to see France myself?"

This brought Colette's attention back.

"The stories you tell me...about the different sights and sounds...it sounds great. You were really lucky to grow up in such interesting cities. Do you know how many people would kill to get away from a boring life and get to try something different everyday like you? You have no idea what that does to people, Colette...what's it's made you as a person."

The young girl just sat and looked at him. It took her what seemed like a lifetime to come up with a reply. She smiled devilishly and leaned forward, kissing Mello's cheek, causing a few children at play in the room to turn and gawk.

Mello's cheeks turned red, and he growled at the others, who went back to their activities whispering and laughing with each other. He then turned to Colette. "Now, why did you do something like that?"

"'Cuz you're sweet. You're going to make some girl very happy when you get older.

"Pfft, sure. Whatever you say..."

"What, too wound up in being mister smarty-pants-who-will-one-day-rise-above-the-all-might-Near? Eh, whatever suits you."

Mello turned and looked at his feet, nothing else to say. Unaware that the blush continued to linger on his pale young face.


End file.
